Robert Coote

Born in London and educated at Sussex' Hurstpierpont College, actor Robert Coote can be described as Britain's Ralph Bellamy. After making his film debut in the Gracie Fields vehicle Sally in Our Alley (1931) and spending several years on the London stage, the gangly, mustached Coote settled in Hollywood, where in film after film he played stuffed-shirt aristocrats, snooty military officers and clueless young twits who never got the girl. Coote interrupted his film career for World War II service as a squadron leader with the Canadian Air Force, then returned to supporting roles in such films as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) and Forever Amber (1948). In 1956, Coote was cast as Col. Pickering in the long-running Broadway musical My Fair Lady; eight years later he appeared in the weekly TV series The Rogues, generally carrying the series' plotlines when the "official" stars--David Niven, Charles Boyer and Gig Young--were indisposed. Robert Coote's last film appearance was as one of the theatrical critics dispatched by looney Shakespearean actor Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide